Fr Furlong added: "Cathriona was a light to so many. Something of the light has gone out. Yet much remains.

"The light continues to shine. The light of love lives on; the love you had for Cathriona; the love she had for you."

A number of gifts were presented at the service including a sports jersey and football to signify Ms White's love of Gaelic games, family photos and make-up brushes.

As well as working in television, mourners heard about her passion for photography and how she documented the lives of the homeless in LA.

In a moving eulogy, Ms White's stepsister Sarah said love was the only word she needed to remember her.

She said it was a constant in her life. "Anyone who saw her lurking around LA with a camera trying to capture the poor conditions in which the homeless were forced to live will know not just her love and talent for photography but also the desire that she had for the world to be a better place because she was in it, and it was," she said.

Ms White was remembered as a daddy's girl, family centred and a vocal fan of hurling.

"Cathriona had such an amazing capacity to love and to be loved," Sarah said.

She said losing both her stepfather and stepsister within a few years was unimaginably difficult.

But she added: "We can take some comfort in the knowledge that Cathriona and Pat are together again. She is at peace.

"We need to find comfort for each other. There is no easy fix for grief. Particularly when we have lost somebody so young with so much left to give.

"But to paraphrase the song 'Oh, the sharp knife of a short life, send me away with the words of a lovesong'."

Sarah added that she finds it hard to imagine life after her stepsister's death. "Thankfully, love is not as fickle and unpredictable as life is. As long as you are loved, you are here. You are so loved," Sarah said.